Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a nighttime curfew in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday night in an attempt to prevent another night of clashes between protesters opposing US President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdowns and security forces.
“I have issued an order for a curfew starting tonight at 8 p.m. for Downtown Los Angeles to stop bad actors taking advantage of the President’s chaotic escalation. If you do not live or work in Downtown Los Angeles, please avoid the area,” Bass wrote on X.
She said “police will arrest individuals who violate the curfew and they will be prosecuted.”
The curfew will last until 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday and will last “for several days,” Bass said at a separate news conference.
It will only be in effect within an area that includes the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and City Hall.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump vowed to “liberate” the second-largest city in the United States during a speech to troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, calling the protests sparked by his campaign of mass deportations “a total assault on peace, public order and national sovereignty, carried out by rioters carrying foreign flags to continue a foreign invasion of our country.”
He also said California Governor Gavin Newsom and Bass were “incompetent and paid troublemakers, agitators and rioters.”
Trump tried to walk back those comments, as well as a broader claim that protesters were being paid, when asked by reporters about his comments.
“I didn’t say the governor or the mayor. I said somebody pays them, I think. And if they don’t pay, they’re just troublemakers. What can I tell you? But I believe someone is paying them,” he said.
Trump has deployed some 4,000 U.S. National Guard members and 700 Marines to the streets of Los Angeles despite warnings from Newsom and Bass that the move would only further inflame already high tensions.
A federal judge has denied Newsom’s request for a restraining order to block what Newsom described as Trump’s “unlawful militarization of Los Angeles.”
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California instead scheduled a hearing for Thursday on Newsom’s request.
The protests erupted on Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided local businesses and detained hundreds of people suspected of living in the United States illegally. The Trump administration has continued to conduct the raids despite community opposition.
Critics of the raids say ICE is targeting law-abiding undocumented immigrants, a vital part of the community and local economy, rather than the criminals Trump has vowed to deport over the past in the campaign to return to the White House.
Dozens of protesters were also arrested Tuesday night when they gathered in Foley Square before marching to Federal Plaza, blocking streets and chanting slogans denouncing ICE policies, AA writes.
